Smarter AI Workflows in Microsoft 365 Copilot has been announced on the roadmap: Tools, Source Control, and Agents

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Tool Selection in Copilot Chat: Making AI Features More Discoverable One of the most helpful updates in my opinion, is the introduction of the new “Tools” button in Copilot Chat. Users will soon see this button directly in the chat prompt box, offering quick access to a curated set of Copilot features such as Researcher, Analyst, Pages, and image generation.  This will hopefully help users with an easier path to the different tools at their disposal. The feature is turned on by default, with no admin configuration required. This feature is associated with Roadmap ID 497298 , and is expected to roll out in the last weeks of August. Source Control in Copilot Chat: Scoped Responses for Greater Relevance Another user-friendly enhancement coming up, is the ability to scope Copilot Chat responses to specific content sources. This feature will allow users to define exactly which documents, folders, or repositories Copilot should reference when generating responses. It’s a subtle but power...

Copilot Actions, rolling out

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Copilot Actions has been available through Copilot Studio for some time, and now, a version of this feature is being rolled out within Microsoft 365. This new integration offers a user-friendly way to automate and delegate common tasks.

The term "Actions" varies depending on the application. In Copilot Studio, it serves as a flexible tool for agents. By combining Copilot prompts and conversations, triggers (such as file modifications or scheduled reminders), and user-defined rules, Copilot Actions can generate artifacts that streamline workflows. A similar type of action is teased in the "lightweight" version of Copilot Studio within the M365 agent builder (marked as "coming soon").

The version discussed here is a new out-of-the-box functionality, designed to ensure that even users with minimal technical expertise can benefit from its powerful asynchronous capabilities.

To utilize Copilot Actions, users must have a Copilot license (priced at $30). The help article "Set up actions in Copilot to automate daily tasks" on Microsoft Support is a valuable resource for this purpose. The feature is already available in our production tenant, indicating that the rollout has begun.

I hope this feature continues to develop. Currently, it seems you can only run predefined tasks with limited adjustments to the queries. However, users can be taught to build their own agents and use triggers in Power Automate to initiate these agents.